There are now more than 300 wineries in Oregon’s Willamette Valley alone, and more in other areas of Oregon. May is Oregon Wine Month, making it a fine time to explore these gorgeous wines!

Famously, Willamette Valley sits on the 45th parallel, relative to the equator – which it shares with Burgundy and Bordeaux in France and Itlay’s Piedmont Region and Michigan’s Traverse City area! The 45th parallel lends some big plusses for growing wine. It all boils down to a long growing season (long days) and good diurnal temperature swings (warm days and cool nights, during the growing season.)

Pinot Noir evolved as Willamette Valley’s calling card decades ago, in the 1970s and 80s, and it’s one of my faves. But there’s so much more now! Beautiful white wines, from Chardonnay to Pinot Gris to Viognier, and a lot of fantastic sparkling wines.

But let’s not get overly geeky. Let’s talk about some of my favorite Oregon wines.

Brooks Winery

If you’re lucky enough to go to Willamette Valley, go to Brooks. There’s something dreamy about sitting on their large wooden deck built on stilts, with a glass of their dry riesling in-hand. The deck has majestic views of Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams, and the wines are famously fun and well-made. For more info, click here.

Of course, there are gorgeous Pinot Noirs and other wines, but I would say Brooks has a reputation for beautiful dry rieslings. These wines can be porch pounders on their own, but they also are wonderful paired with sushi and other Asian fare, as well as salty cheeses. Yum.

Penner Ash

I recently attended a fabulous dinner hosted by Penner Ash (now part of Jackson Family Wines) here in Chicago at Hawksmoor, and got to know their wines. Beautiful Viognier, Chardonnay and of course Pinot Noir. Winemaker Katie Ayres was one of the first to make Viognier in Willamette Valley, and here’s the thing: it does not taste like the CVS shampoo aisle!

Viognier is a notoriously aromatic grape, and sometimes, too much floral comes through hence the shampoo reference. But the Penner Ash Viognier was luuuuuuvly … well-balanced with a nice melange of ripe fruit and floral notes – nothing overwhelms.

I think this wine comes out so well because of the cooler climate in Oregon. The Rhône Valley in France is Viognier’s “home base” and it gets fucking hot in the Rhône Valley these days, thanks to climate change. Heat can over-ripen fruit and those super-perfumes florals just get out of control.

Penner Ash also makes a mean Pinot Noir (never met a Willamette Valley Pinot Noir that I didn’t love), and if you know me, you know I also love a Chardy Party – that was delicious as well.

Sokol Blosser

Sokol Blosser is one of Willamette Valley’s legacy wineries, going back to 1971, when Bill and Susan Sokol Blosser planted Pinot Noir. People called them crazy. These days, people call them some of the most daring, accomplished winery founders in the land!

Of course, their Chards and Pinots are perfection, but what’s also interesting is their sparkling program. Susan Sokol Blosser luuuuuuuvs Champagne, and so the second generation – her children – put a stake in the ground on sparkling. In fact, winemaker Robin Howell wound up at Sokol Blosser because of the opportunity to make world-class sparkling wines, in addition to classic Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and other varietals.

Bluebird Brut Cuvée is a delight. It’s made in the traditional method (second fermentation happens in the bottle). It’s an interesting blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (two of the three classic grapes used in Champagne), plus some Mūller Thurgau, Riesling and Muscat (just a touch).

It’s dry, it’s crisp, it’s refreshing, and it’s fun because it’s named after endangered the Western Bluebird, which Sokol Blosser works to protect with birdhouses on their property. Cool!

Ken Wright Cellars

Ken Wright is, like, a supreme leader, when it comes to Willamette Valley and why the place offers such unique terroir. He spent decades learning about the soil types that all stem from the Missoula Floods, about 15,000 years ago. This happened at the end of the last Ice Age. When the melting started, it unleashed some epic floods that poured through the Pacific Northwest, carving out craters, mountains and valleys and bringing all sorts of remnants of sea life and other biologic matter. Crazy, right?

But all that “garbage” brought with it unique nutrients to the soil, and that, my friends, brings terroir that no other place on earth has. I was lucky to listen to Ken for a few hours at his winery, and it was the most interesting geek-talk ever. His wines are made to showcase different terroirs, and they are really fun to taste. For more info, click here.

Now, there are hundreds of other wineries that I love – but these are four of my most memorable. You really can’t go wrong with any Oregon wine. So ask your wine shop what they’ve got in stock and celebrate Oregon Wine Month yourself. Cheers, friends.